


Because Now

by Catchclaw



Series: Mental Mimosa [179]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Marriage, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 20:38:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16415537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catchclaw/pseuds/Catchclaw
Summary: The last time he’s in Wakanda, they get married.





	Because Now

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Marriage (of arrangement, convenience, or necessity; accidental marriage; traditional marriage or partnership ceremony). Prompt from this [generator](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/promptsnsfw).

The last time he’s in Wakanda, they get married.

It’s a simple ceremony, a quiet one: only them and the stars and the goats. There’s no minister or fancy words or even a justice of the peace. It’s just he and Bucky, the way it’s always been.

Their fingers wound together, their foreheads pitched, the sound of the savannah waving in the shadowed breeze.

_I love you_ , Steve says, like he has a thousand times, more.

Bucky spreads his hand over Steve’s heart, the place where it’s beating out of his chest and pushes him down easy and follows him down into the grass. _I love you_ , he says with kisses that come home and linger, with the careless scratch of his beard on soft skin, with the sweet, ardent look in his eyes.

They make love beneath a tender moon with the heat of shooting stars on their skin, filling the night with the kind of joy they once hid under the covers, hands clapped over each other’s mouths so the neighbors wouldn’t hear, so no one would glance at them askance on the stairs and whisper that dreaded word: _queer_. Now there’s no reason to be quiet, no reason they have to hide; they’re alone now because they want to be, because they want to drown in each other and forget for a time that a world beyond this exists and when Bucky takes him again, slides right back in through the mess, Steve roars like the lion he’s always been and grins into Bucky’s face, stroking his hair and urging him on until the ground itself seems to shake.

_I love you_ , Bucky murmurs in his ear, after, the grass beneath Steve’s back pounded flat.

Steve breathes in deep and squeezes Bucky’s ribs and shudders: _I know_.

***

They don’t tell anyone. They don’t exchange rings. They’ve never needed anyone’s approval before, never wanted anybody to know. It’s always been them, theirs, this thing, and even when they’re separated--Steve careening around the world doing good and Bucky tending to his flock--it doesn’t feel like there’s any reason to change. They know what they are to each other and why and that’s enough. It’s always been enough.

Necessity first. And then duty. And then, all those years later, caution born of a different sort of fear--a hope that this time, this time, the universe will let what they have last.

Except then the world ends. Half of it, anyway. And Steve finds himself clutching ash.

_I love you_ , he tells what’s left of his husband, the best parts of his heart that now lie in his hand.

But the wind, the white, broken sky, they bring no good answer back.

***

When Bucky returns, they’re surrounded; by old friends, new ones, grateful civilians they don’t know. He looks shell-shocked and unsteady, his skin pale, his eyes dull and gone to ground, and when Steve hugs him, tugs their bodies together, Bucky feels cold and limp.

_Buck,_ Steve says, over and over again. _Bucky. Oh, Buck._

Bucky shakes his head, shakes; his hands tremble on Steve’s shoulders like dying leaves. He doesn’t speak.

Steve rucks him up tighter, buries his face in the cold turn of Bucky’s neck, and the tears come then; blue tears that sting his own cheeks like ice.

_Love you_ , Steve gets out. _God, Bucky, baby, I love you so much_.

Bucky makes a soft, hollow sound.

_I love you_ , Steve says again, louder this time. _I love you and it’s just about killed me. You being gone._

A stir of warmth in Bucky’s breath, a hint of a night’s wind. The curve of his metal arm around the turn of Steve’s waist. _Stevie_.

There’s a flutter in Steve’s heart, a sweet pop of joy, and he squeezes Bucky hard, buries his smile in the rough of Bucky’s neck. _Whadda you know? Got it in one._

Then Bucky’s holding on to him, clutching, a drowning man suddenly awake in the sea. _Steve. Oh, god. God._

There’s a storm around them, a symphony of jubilation--millions of reunions, teary eyes, and hands that hold on without fail.

In the midst of it, then, all that happiness, all that rewarded hope, it doesn’t seem like a shift that they’re kissing, their mouths open and tired faces wet. It’s just Steve and Bucky, just them, even when the whole world’s around them, when they’re somewhere outside of the shadows, leaned against each other in the pale morning light.

_I love you_ , Steve says, pitching his voice over the din. _Love you, Buck, love--_

And Bucky smiles, the curve of his lips warmer now, lit up by the spark of Steve’s kiss. _Love you, baby. Always have. Figure I always will._

***

The first time they’re in Wakanda, after, they get married again. Two dozen friends, a tent, the sun low in the evening sky. Rings, this time. And declarations. And at the end, the beginning, a long, long public kiss

_I love you_ , Bucky says through the turn of his fingers, their gentle scratch on the back of Steve’s neck.

_Love you_ , Steve says when they part, the words aloud but lost in the cheering to everybody but Buck. _Love you so much. And I don’t care who knows it._

A smirk, a blink of bright eyes. _Good_ , Bucky says, his lips lost and soft on Steve’s own. _Because now, everyone does_.


End file.
